Full-fashioned hosiery



Dec. 19, 1950 p wlLCHER ETAL 2,534,689

FULL-FASHIONED HOSIERY Filed Jan. 13, 1949 3 I3 F IQ l2 71 FIG Z INVENTORS Patented Dec. 19, 1950 FULL-FASHIONED HOSIERY Abrasha Wilcher, Manchester, N. H., and Melvin J. Gordon, Brookline, Mass.;A assignorsto Melvin .L Gordon, Sadye Z. Gordon, and Natalie G. Stone, doing business as Manchester Hosiery' Mills,v Manchester, N. H.

Application January 13, 1949,4 Serial No. m54Y n v 'The-present invention relates'to womens full fashioned hosiery which is kniton a fiati knitting machine inthe form desired and then seamed together by joining with a longitudinal seam which extends the entire length of the hose in a position corresponding to the back center line of the leg.

In the manufacture of Asuch hosiery, a welt is usually formed at the top of the hose which ordinarily is of the order of 3%" or 4" wide. This welt is knit iiat upon the knitting machine. The flat fabric is knit 7 to 8 inches and then doubled by transferring the rst stitches off the welt bar onto the needle bar thus forming a double fabric which is commonly known as the welt or double Welt and the end of the welt is joined with the body of the hose. In fact the stocking is usually knitted commencing at the end of the welt and continuing down to the foot section while the longitudinal seam is formed commencing at the foot end and ending on the inside of the welt. In order to be able to remove the seaming guides and cup of the seaming machine after forming this joining seam, it is necessary to leave a space at the end of the welt so that the stocking may be withdrawn from the seaming guides. This opening in the welt at this point is a Weakness in the hosiery, and this Weakness is particularly emphasized when the hosiery is supported at this point by the garter, since Very frequently the i garter is clamped to the hosiery `at the point where the seam is left open, with the result that only one thickness of the stocking is held by the garter rather than both thicknesses of the welt.

The present invention overcomes this difculty by the formation of a garter block orsection on the external face or side of the welt which garter block section is of the same or greater strength as the doubled formed Welt extending around the top of the hose where no opening exists. The garter block of the present invention may extend for `a narrower or wider distance on either side of the joining seam at the back of the garter. For best purposes it should be somewhat wider than the welt opening on the inner side so that a,

if the top of the welt is distorted by stretching transversely, the block on the side of the welt will still cover the opening on the inner side.

The invention will be more fully described in the specification below when taken in connection f with the drawings illustrating an embodiment of the same, in which:

Figure 1 shows the top full fashioned hose as viewed from the outside of the stocking looking at the longitudinal seam yat the center.

1 Claim. (Cl. (i6- 1735) Figure 2fshows a fragmentary view looking at the stocking against the inner sidev of the weltat they top of thehose in substantially theA same position as shown in yFigure 1, and,

Figure 3 shows a sectional viewtaken onthe line `3 3 ofFigure 1.

In the drawings, the section I of the hose up to the light demarkation line 2 comprises a knitted fabric of the thinnest denier or lightest weight thread in the hose. In a well made hose this thread may be of the order of denier. Above this section of the hose is knitted an after welt, knit with a heavier thread, perhaps denier, as illustrated in the section 3 between the demarkation lines 2 and 4. The top welt part of the hose may be knitted with the same heavier thread as for instance of a 50 denier. This may be the thickness of the thread or of the total carrier strands employed in the section 5.

As shown more clearly in Figure 3, the welt begins on the inside at the line 4 marking the beginning of a heavier thread than the section in the lower leg section of the hose. This Welt extends on the inside to the top of the hose where a finishing top stitch 1 may be applied and then down on the outer side at 8 to the line 4 where lighter courses are formed in the knitting.

In the initial flat knitting of the hose, the welt side edge is substantially a straight line and continues as such down the side along the top part of the nat knitted hose. When however these edges are stitched together to form the back seam of the hose, the fact that the seam is stopped before the inner end of the welt provides van oval .shaped opening 9 due to the naturally transverse stretch of the knitted fabric.

In this section where the opening 9 is so formed, a block I0 is made on the outside section of the welt on either side of the longitudinal joining seam Il. This block may be formed by adding extra thread for each course commencing at the top finishing edge 1 down to the end of the welt on the outer side as dened by the line `Il. `The extra thread is preferably carried only part way along the welt, preferably an equal distance on both sides as dened by the lines I2 and I3. (See Fig. 1.) If the Welt thread used is 50 denier, the added thread may be of equal or less thickness, thus making the section t0 substantially as strong yas the double thickness of the rest of the welt band itself.

The formation of the block in the welt on the outside makes it unnecessary for the wearer of the hose to avoid putting the garter over the seam within the area 9, but in addition to this,

provides a reinforced region at both sides of the seam at the top of the hosiery which is the logical place where the garter is to be applied. In fact the garter should be applied to this block section if the individual wishes to have the seam extend in a straight line with reference to the symmetry of the leg. If the garter is placed to one side avoiding opening 9 then the hose will not be held straight on the leg and there will be a tendency for it to twist to the side making an unsightly appearance of the seam.

In addition to this it will of course be noted that by applying the block on the outside of the welt in the section on either side of the seam, the holding region for the garter will be materially strengthened without in any way destroying the balance of the stocking, that is, making it top heavy and Without interfering also with the symmetry of the stocking since the garter block ex- 'tends on either side of the central longitudinal seam of the stocking.

The invention may be applied to any type of knitted full fashioned hosiery of silk, nylon, rayon, or other materials.

Having now described our invention, we claim:

of the welt.

ABRASHA WDQCHER. MELVIN J. GORDON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the iile of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,842,130 Thompson Jan. 19, 1932 2,057,056 Quinn Oct. 13, 1936 2,099,539 Shively Nov. 16, 1937 2,136,426 Folkman Nov. 15, 1933 2,273,071 Rugeley et 'al Feb. 15, 1942 

